[madcat]

Take a look at this for the info about the AI and clouds.
http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,2972.0.html

WOW didn't think any one would take on that challenge, he must be mad lol. Thanks for the link and hope his mod can be built on

FENRIR has answered it really, I'm just going to type out an extract from a book that might clear some things up.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, information began to appear in the mass-media regarding the development in the United States of technologies for a 'low observable' combat aircraft, better known as 'Stealth' technology. Research was being conducted to find materials and configurations with which to reduce the radar and infra-red visibility of aircraft. The flying wing layout was found to have the smallest possible vertical plane areas and hence the least radar-reflecting surface, while its simple shape precluded the deflection of the incoming electromagnetic waves in the direction of the signal source, i.e. the search radar.

Originating from this research the 'Stealth' warplanes such as the Northrop B-2A and the projected McDonnell Douglas A-12 appeared to have design features strikingly reminiscent of the Horten Ho 229. No wonder that the astounding idea of 'Nazi Stealth' arose and became almost universally accepted by the media, Could it be true that the technology which we consider to be one of the latest developments in aerial warfare has, in fact, its roots in the Third Reich? Let us look again at the time of the H IX inception.

Evidently the problem of avoiding radar detection came into being the moment the first operational radar was fielded. Already during the Battle of Britain radar has greatly enhanced the effectiveness of the British air defence. As early as April 1942 the RLM's Director of Air Armament, Erhard Milch, offered a prize for finding a way of deceiving enemy radar. While airborne electronic warfare was in the event pioneered by the British 'Window' passive jamming, it was the German Navy which introduced the means of permanent radar-protection of moving vehicles. By 1944 the Kriegsmarine had developed and tested radar- absorbing materials which were applied to the parts of the submarines exposed above the water in order to prevent their detection by ASV radar, which was a naval version of the H2S airborne radar. The simplest material was a carbon-impregnated rubber coating, named 'Schornsteinfeger' ('chimney sweeper'), an allusion to the substance used.

Although the Ho 229 has been immediately identified as 'stealthy' due to the characteristics of its overall configuration, neither of the Horten brothers ever claimed their aircraft had been designed with consideration to the way it deflects radar waves. In fact, the unique shape of the Ho 229 had evolved from the ten-year long aerodynamic research by the Hortens. What Reimar did claim as far back as 1950, was that wooden construction of the Ho 229 would reflect very little of the incoming electromagnetic waves, thus making the aircraft "...barely visible on radar".

Here it should be noted that despite a widespread belief, the wooden construction of an aircraft dose not necessarily reduce its radar visibility. Known is the fact that the all-wooden de Havilland Mosquito was in no way 'invisible'. It is true that wood is a predominantly radio-transparent material, reflecting and dissipating only a small fraction of radiation. But, with the skin transparent to the radar rays, the inner structures such as the engines or the tubular frame of the Ho 229 would reflect the incoming radiation none the less.

It appears that the radar-absorption properties of carbon had not been known to Reimar before the late 1970s, when materials working on similar principles were created in the USA. Perhaps this new information led Reimar to assert in his 'visionary' manner that the charcoal present inside the Formholz skin the Ho 229 "... would diffuse radar beams, and make the aircraft 'invisible' to radar". Although the charcoal being a form of carbon, could in fact dissipate electromagnetic emissions in a limited range of wavelengths, this substance had actually been utilized as a porous filler to lighten the composite formed parts. Another variation of the carbon theme be Reimar dealt with a mix of coal dust and glue that "... camouflaged 90% of the radar cross-section of the Ho 229" and had to be applied also to the H XVIII.

While no wartime document in known to confirm any 'stealth' activities within the Luftwaffe, the Horten 229 can in any event be considered a precursor to the latest flying wing, the blended-wing-body and related developments, both military and civil - stealth or not, Thus, seventy years on, the Horten's vision is still at the forefront of aeronautical progress.